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Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
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Brown University police arrests are not public. ACLU lawsuit is looking to change that.
A gate on the Brown University campus. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is suing the university's Department of Public Safety for refusing to give arrest reports to local journalists. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island aims to stop a three-decade practice in which Brown University police officers keep arrest reports hidden from the public. The complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court Monday was prompted by a pair of journalists — one is a former Brown University student journalist who graduated in 2024 and the second writes for arts and entertainment publication Motif Magazine. Each was separately refused reports of unrelated arrests made by Brown University's Department of Public Safety. Brown University contends that the officers work for a private agency, and therefore are not subject to Rhode Island's Access to Public Records Act. The ACLU argues that because Brown's police officers have the same seizure, detention and arrest powers as local and state law enforcement — laid out under a 1995 law — their actions, including arrests, should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other government agency or public body. 'By engaging in one of the most fundamental functions of government — the enforcement of criminal laws and exercising the power to search and seize individuals — BDPS is acting on behalf of and/or in place of a government agency or public body,' the seven-page complaint states. The legal action comes as good government advocates, including the ACLU, rally for more sweeping reform of the state's public records law, which has not been updated since 2012. Among the 48 changes proposed in legislation pending before the Rhode Island General Assembly is a provision clarifying that private university police bestowed arrest powers by the state must be subject to state records laws. Rhode Island School of Design police are the only other private university in Rhode Island given power to arrest under state law, though they are not named in the complaint. Steven Brown, executive director for the ACLU, said the good government group has received half a dozen complaints, mostly from journalists, about Brown University's refusal to hand over arrest records when asked. 'It just seems so clear that a police department, wherever it is located, is operating as a public agency when they detain and arrest individuals,' Brown said in a recent interview. 'It is rather daunting to consider the power that they have as law enforcement, that they claim they can hide.' Brian Clark, a spokesperson for Brown, said the university had not received the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon. 'Should we receive it formally, we will review it in full,' Clark said in an emailed response. Clark also pointed to a January opinion by the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General affirming that Brown's police department is not subject to state public records law because it is not a government body or public agency. The eight-page opinion by Paul Meosky, special assistant attorney general, aimed to settle disputes between the university and two local journalists — the same two people named as plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit — over access to campus police arrest reports. Meosky concluded that it was 'undisputed' that Brown University's police department was a 'unit of Brown,' and therefore part of a private, nonprofit institution — not subject to state open records laws. 'Nothing in the record suggests that BUPD has open meetings or is listed as a public body on any government website,' Meosky wrote. 'Additionally, the record demonstrates that the BUPD is not authorized to operate beyond the university's campus and its immediate vicinity.' Meosky also noted 'the strong public interest' in campus police records. 'We strongly encourage the General Assembly to carefully review this issue and whether the APRA should be amended to make law enforcement-type records maintained by private campus police departments subject to the APRA,' the opinion states. Timothy Rondeau, a spokesperson for the AG's office, said the opinion 'speaks for itself' when asked for comment about the lawsuit. 'Our Office has been, and will continue, to be vigorously committed to open government,' Rondeau said in an email. 'This was a challenging issue, and we will await the Court's guidance.' Brown said he was disappointed, but not surprised by the AG's opinion, which followed what he called a 'pattern of deferring to local police departments when it comes to open records laws.' And it's incorrect, at least in the eyes of Noble Brigham, a Brown University Class of 2024 graduate and one of the two plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit. Brigham, 23, now lives in Las Vegas, where he works as a courts reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal. During his time as a student at Brown, he freelanced for the Providence Journal and wrote for the campus newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald. Brigham asked campus police for arrest reports in December 2022 while working on a story about a man charged by Brown Police with trespassing and felony breaking and entering, after he was found sleeping in the basement of a campus dorm. Brown refused to hand over the documents, prompting Brigham to appeal to the AG's office in January 2023. Brigham no longer keeps tabs on the fallout from the arrest of the man, who had a 10-year history of run-ins with campus police, according to Brigham's reporting. But he insists access to campus police arrest reports is important. 'I didn't just file the complaint because I thought Brown was wrong in their interpretation of the records law,' Brigham said in an interview Friday. 'I also thought it was important for people to know what's going on.' Exempting Brown police from making arrests public also hides whether campus law enforcement are following through with charges on arrests — or, potentially, erasing those arrests even from internal records. 'One of the most important purposes of APRA is to make sure police agencies cannot make arrests disappear,' said Michael Bilow, a reporter with Motif Magazine and the other plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit. 'To this day, I have no legal assurance that Brown didn't do that.' Bilow first sought records for Brown University students arrested during a series of pro-Palestine sit-in protests in the wake of the Hamas attack on Gaza. An initial group of 20 students were arrested by campus police for a Nov. 8, 2023 protest, but the charges were dropped. Another 41 students were arrested for trespassing during a Dec. 11, 2023, sit-in protest, according to news reports. State law requires that Brown University police must submit any arrest reports to the Providence Police Department. But when Bilow first requested the arrest documents for the 41 students from Providence police, he was told there were no records. He had also tried to get them from campus police but never heard back. Five months later, Bilow spotted a Providence City Council post on X calling on the city solicitor to drop charges against the 41 Brown students. Bilow re-upped his request to the city, using the social media post as proof that arrests had been made and charges filed. One of the most important purposes of APRA is to make sure police agencies cannot make arrests disappear. To this day, I have no legal assurance that Brown didn't do that.' – Michael Bilow, a reporter with Motif Magazine and one of two plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit against the university Bilow eventually got the information he was asking for from the city of Providence, which admitted its error in previously telling him that there were no records. 'My understanding is that Brown Police did the 'processing' of the arrested individuals, which led to our confusion here,' a city spokesperson told Bilow in the reply, which is included in a story by Bilow on Motif's website. 'This is why Public Safety had no records of the arrest.' Samara Pinto, a spokesperson for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley's office, indicated this is not unusual. 'Brown University Public Safety reports come into the Department's possession when criminal cases involving their arrests are referred for prosecution in district court,' Pinto said in an email Monday. 'In many instances, the copy in the prosecution file may be the only one we receive.' While Bilow now has the names and charges against the 41 students, he doesn't know if anyone else was arrested, but isn't being prosecuted. That leaves him unable to confirm if others may have been charged but then had charges subsequently dropped. 'I have no proof, but I have no assurance either,' Bilow said. 'That in itself is pretty newsworthy.' A former Brown University police officer has begun to speak out about the lengths university officials are willing to go to keep information closeted within the 95-person department. Michael Greco, who worked as a patrol officer for Brown University Department of Public Safety for 18 years before leaving in August, testified in support of public records reform at a State House hearing on May 22. Greco told lawmakers the department's exemption from public records law was purposefully manipulated to hide information. On multiple occasions, he or other campus officers would be sent to handle incidents that should have been handled by Providence police, specifically because that would ensure any reports or arrests could remain private, he said. Greco has filed a workers' compensation claim against the university after leaving due to post-traumatic stress disorder, which he developed after a November 2021 shooting and bombing threat on campus. In an interview, Greco said he and other officers were sent to respond to a report of bomb threats and someone claiming they were going to 'shoot cops.' Greco said he was specifically instructed not to call in the threat on his radio so that Providence police would not hear the information and also respond. An initial report written by Greco on the day of the threat, Nov. 7, 2021, and shared with Rhode Island Current following the threats at Brown — which were ultimately not proven true — details his concerns about campus police being ill-equipped to respond to an active shooter threat. A printout also shared by Greco shows another officer modified the report two days later; the section in which Greco wrote that he was concerned about responding and was shrugged off was deleted. 'They were willing to dangle us in front of a building where a guy said he would shoot police officers in order to keep something from getting on the Providence radios and out into the public,' Greco said. 'If the primary function of Brown's police department is to take what should be public record and make it private, they are not prioritizing the safety of officers.' Clark did not respond to requests for comment on Greco's allegations. Providence police did eventually respond to the bomb and shooting threats on Nov. 7, 2021. However, the city police incident report notes the call was received at 5:21 p.m., three-and-a-half hours after the initial 1:50 p.m. call to Brown University police noted in Greco's report. There were no arrests. Brown University Department of Public Safety is also required to collect and report crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education under The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act. The university maintains an electronic log of daily incidents, dating back to 2018, noting the date and time of each incident, its classification — larceny, burglary, extortion, etc — and whether the investigation is open, closed or turned over to Providence police. The single-line entries offer little detail, and without a formal arrest or transfer to Providence police, most of the specific information remains out of public reach. If the primary function of Brown's police department is to take what should be public record and make it private, they are not prioritizing the safety of officers. – Michael Greco, a former Brown University patrol officer who left in August 2024 Greco also alleged police would routinely doctor incident reports to avoid federal reporting requirements — vandalism became 'property damage with malicious intent,' for example. 'I don't think that there's anything more troubling than the notion that an agency that has the power to arrest somebody can keep that information about those arrests secret,' Brown said. 'That should concern anyone who cares about transparency and accountability, when any entity is given such incredible power over information.' The lawsuit asks the court to issue a judgment determining that Brown's campus police department is a public body, subject to compliance with public records laws. It also seeks court intervention to force Brown University to hand over the arrest documents requested by Bilow and Brigham within 10 days. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
McKee's FY 2026 budget underestimated labor costs for R.I. State Police, correctional officers
Members of the Rhode Island State Police march in the Newport St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 15, 2025. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) You wouldn't suspect any opposition to proposed pay raises for state troopers and correctional officers based on public hearings Friday morning. The requisite meetings on new collective bargaining agreements held just before the holiday weekend concluded in under 10 minutes, with no public feedback on either contract. But legislative leaders are less than thrilled about the salary increases and accompanying benefits for roughly 1,250 state employees, which require $15 million more than what Gov. Dan McKee planned for in his fiscal 2026 budget proposal. Unlike most other state employee unions, the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers and the Rhode Island Troopers Association had not inked new deals with the administration when McKee unveiled his proposed $14 billion spending plan in January. So McKee put in a $30 million placeholder for the yet-to-be signed contracts. Turns out, the agreements are actually going to cost the state $45 million over the next two years, rather than the $30 million McKee budgeted. Hardly welcome news to the leaders of the Rhode Island General Assembly already grappling with a budget deficit and potentially devastating federal funding cuts just weeks before the end of the 2025 legislative session. A spending plan must be approved by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. 'Unfortunately, the newly revealed shortfall from the Administration's contract settlements is not the only issue we need to address in the budget,' House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said in an emailed statement. 'It certainly worsens the situation and is, frankly, beyond frustrating.' Senate President Valarie Lawson also appeared caught off-guard by the unexpected cost hike, which she said she learned about on Wednesday. 'While this is deeply concerning, I will work with the Senate Finance Committee to address this unexpected challenge,' Lawson said in an emailed statement. Laura Hart, a spokesperson for McKee's office, defended the contract costs in an emailed response Friday, noting that the third-quarter revenue report from the state budget office shows an extra $60.9 million expected to flow into state coffers by the end of the fiscal year 2025. 'The Governor encourages the General Assembly to support the contractual increases for public safety personnel using these dollars in the upcoming budget,' Hart said. Both contracts call for annual cost-of-living adjustments starting at 5% in year one, with a 4% second-year bump and a 3% adjustment in the third year — identical to the incremental scale adopted for 4,000 other state employees under contracts finalized last fall. So how did McKee mess up the math? For one, the raises for 255 state troopers start earlier than expected: the 5% pay bump is retroactive to Nov. 1, 2023, rather than the July 1, 2024, start date for other state union workers, including correction officers, said Karen Greco, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Administration. The tentative agreement, reached on Feb. 28, also features a 'uniform allowance' not accounted for in the governor's budget projections, Greco said. Erik Jensen, president of the state troopers union, acknowledged but did not offer a response to questions about the agreement on Friday. Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, remained unsatisfied with the terms of the 1,000-member union's new state contract, which was finalized on May 14 after months of arbitration. 'I don't want to sound ungrateful,' Ferruccio said in an interview Friday. 'But I still feel somewhat frustrated with it.' His main grievance was not with the annual cost-of-living increases, but accompanying benefits that would make the union better able to attract and retain officers. Staffing woes at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections are well-documented, and costly; the 117 open positions as of March 22 is projected to lead to a $42.9 million overtime cost for the full fiscal year 2025, according to a presentation to state lawmakers in April. It certainly worsens the situation and is, frankly, beyond frustrating. – House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi Ferruccio blamed staffing shortages on uncompetitive benefits relative to other local law enforcement officers and neighboring states, where officers can reach the 'top step' of pay in a shorter period of time. 'There are only a handful of people that really want to get involved in any type of law enforcement,' Ferruccio said. 'When you look at other local police departments, they have a significantly better situation with the top step than we do.' He had hoped to lower the seniority requirement for union officers to reach maximum pay from its current 14 years to six years, matching the policy offered for correctional officers in Connecticut. But the compromise struck with the state cuts the length of service to 10 years beginning this June, and eight years starting in June 2026. The agreement also includes a 2.5% pay raise for anyone who stays at least 20 years. The governor's budget did not account for the costs associated with these changes, either, Greco said. But Ferruccio said the final price tag should not have come as a surprise, noting that the changes to top step and retention benefits were longstanding asks by the union. 'I think the governor was given bad information by DOC,' Ferruccio said. He pointed to the grossly underestimated cost to close the state's minimum security facility — initially pegged at $1 million in McKee's budget when a study found it would actually cost $67 million to $71 million — as an example of miscommunication by the corrections department. J.R. Ventura, a spokesperson for the state corrections department, did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment Friday. State worker contract costs are not the only expense McKee underestimated in his fiscal 2026 budget proposal. The state will also have to make up a $24 million shortfall in education aid to local school districts in its fiscal 2025 and 26 budgets due to corrected data on the number of students in poverty. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Over 7,000 combat boots brave elements at Fort Adams to honor fallen U.S. service members
Over 7,000 combat boots, each honoring a fallen U.S. service member, are on display over Memorial Day weekend at Fort Adams State Park in Newport. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) A late spring nor'easter dumped 2 inches of rain on Newport Thursday. Not exactly the best weather for an outdoor display of over 7,000 combat boots. 'They've been out there for nine years, and they're beginning to show their wear and tear and weather like this does not help,' Erik Wallin, executive director of Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, said Thursday afternoon as rain and heavy winds swept through the state. But then combat boots are designed for rough terrain, extreme weather, and heavy-duty use. And the boots on display in the Boots on the Ground for Heroes Memorial are holding up thanks to the TLC from Operation Stand Down staff and hundreds of volunteers. The memorial opened Friday morning under cloudy skies at Fort Adams State Park in Newport. Each boot in the memorial organized by Operation Stand Down has a U.S. flag and a tag with the name and photo of a fallen service member killed in action since 9/11 in the Global War on Terror. The memorial remains open to the public for viewing 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sunday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday. Admission is free. The boots are organized alphabetically and by state and U.S. territories. Visitors often leave coins on the boots, some are symbolic of a personal connection to the soldier, sailor, Marine or Coast Guard personnel who died. A quarter could mean you were with the service member when they died; a dime that you served with the deceased; a nickel that you were at basic training together; and a penny that you visited and paid your respects and thanked the veteran for their service. With the exception of the possibility of a passing late afternoon shower Friday and a lesser chance on Saturday, Wallin is thankful the National Weather Service forecasts calls for a dry Sunday and Memorial Day. The memorial has been installed each year at Fort Adams since 2019. One year, it rained throughout the holiday weekend and into the following days so the boots could not dry out. Wallin said the boots had to be hauled to the Rhode Island Army National Guard Armory in Warwick to dry out. The boots spend most of the year stored in a trailer. But this past Monday, Operation Stand Down staff drew the grid on the field inside Fort Adams. Over 200 volunteers helped place the boots and flags over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday. 'There was a little bit of mold on them,' Wallin said. Not anymore though. Among the volunteers who came to help set up the memorial this week, the East Providence High School football team helped clean boots. 'We're tremendously blessed, all of us at Operation Stand Down,' Wallin said. 'It's very moving to see a hundred volunteers show up on any one day, both as a tribute to those who have fallen and it's a tremendous recognition of people appreciating the sacrifice and service of our U.S. military. This year there are exactly 7,326 boots, the same number on display last year, Wallin said. More boots are added each year if additional U.S. service members are killed in action in war operations under the specific criteria of the Department of Defense. Each fallen hero is represented by a single boot except for the 29 Rhode Island service members killed who are each honored with a pair of boots. A separate circle with pairs of desert tan boots pays tribute to the fallen veterans from Rhode Island. The rest of the boots are black, acquired through military surplus a decade ago. Since then, the Defense Department has switched over to desert tan boots. 'Unfortunately these have been part of the memorial now for over nine years, and they do begin to show their age,' Wallin said. 'We're kind of at that vector point of having to make a decision about going out and investing in an entirely new set.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Draft plan points the way to boost R.I housing production. But it will take a village to get there.
A construction worker retrieves plywood sheets lifted to the roof of the Ade Bethune House, a 54-unit affordable housing complex for seniors under construction on Bristol Ferry Road in Portsmouth on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Six one-bedroom units will be reserved for households at or below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI.) The remaining 34 one-bedroom units and 14 two-bedroom units will be for households at or below 60% of AMI. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) Two months after setting a goal to permit 15,000 new homes within five years, Rhode Island housing officials have unveiled their road map to get there. The vision is detailed in the Housing 2030 plan, which includes a call for the state to permit a minimum of 1,000 new homes priced below $400,000 each and build 1,695 new middle-market units. Additionally, the plan seeks to triple the number of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) permitted, increase multifamily homes by 50%, and finance 2,250 affordable rental units. It's an ambitious plan, Gov. Dan McKee acknowledged during a State House press conference with Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard Wednesday afternoon. But he said change is needed after decades of stagnation. 'When housing production does not meet demand, and it has not met demand in some time, it puts a roadblock in what we call the road to prosperity,' McKee said. The 76-page plan by the Department of Housing is still in draft form. Public comment will be open online through May 23, after which state officials will consider making any changes before final approval. A final plan will likely be published in the fall, Goddard told reporters. Housing Department spokesperson Emily Marshall told Rhode Island Current the 2030 plan is designed to ensure 'that at least a certain number of units are created in each category.' More affordable homes may be added to the state's goal based on ongoing housing needs, she added. The Rhode Island Department of Housing's plan notes home prices have increased 65% and rental prices have increased 60% since 2018, while wages have increased only 29%. From 2022-2024, less than 21% of new construction homes for sale were priced below $400,000, according to the 2030 plan. All the while, few new homes have been permitted for construction. Between 2019 and 2023, fewer than 8,500 new homes received required state and local permits to begin construction in Rhode Island, according to a presentation from the Department of Housing. A lot of the blame still lies on local zoning ordinances that favor single-family homes and prevent higher density structures from being built. State leaders have sought to reduce the red tape through legislative action over recent years, but some towns just haven't been on board. Municipal leaders in Johnston, where about 7.9% of housing units are considered affordable, have pushed back against denser apartment buildings, citing concerns that an influx of families — and students — could strain local school systems and impact municipal budgets. Towns like Narragansett, where about 3.8% of housing units are considered affordable, have repeatedly blocked development of affordable multi-family homes because of potential impact on the 'character' of the town. So what can the state do to get more towns on board? Set housing targets that make sense for each municipality, according to the Housing 2030 plan. 'We have not taken a one-size fits all approach,' Goddard said. The 2030 plan calls for the Department of Housing and the Division of Statewide Planning to look over each community's comprehensive plans — the guiding documents for each municipality's zoning and land use. Cities and towns will be required to modify plans if they do not provide a realistic path forward for the achievement of housing production goals, according to the state's proposal. Community leaders will be required to provide annual progress reports to the Department of Housing, showing what policy changes they followed through on, how many homes were actually built, and explaining any setbacks or issues they ran into. Goddard told reporters her intention is for the state to reward communities that meet goals by giving them higher priority for state grants or infrastructure funds. 'It's a carrot, but it's a nicely disguised hammer in some way,' Goddard said. Municipalities would also be provided with technical assistance on how to reform their local zoning codes and expedite permitting. Randy Rossi, director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, said in a statement Wednesday that municipal leaders are firmly committed to supporting responsible housing development. 'More housing can be built when policies reflect the community needs and financial and technical support is available,' Rossi said. Philip Tedesco, CEO of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, said the plan will rely on a willingness to collaborate. nts. 'Local municipalities, legislators, and stakeholder groups will need to work together in determining revised zoning and development regulations, financial incentives, opportunities for revitalization, and more,' Tedesco said in a statement. Goddard said she believed smaller towns will fall in line and that the state will meet its goal of 15,000 new homes. 'We're going to have to keep pushing, but it's doable,' she said in an interview. HousingWorks RI Director Brenda Clement was a bit more skeptical. She said it may not be possible amid continued uncertainty over federal funding toward housing projects. 'A lot of what we're funding are with recovery funding and that's all going to disappear,' she said in an interview after the press conference. 'I am glad there is a plan, but plans are only as good as our implementation of them.' Rhode Island Builders Association CEO John V. Marcantonio said he believes the state's plan for 15,000 new homes is possible if state and local leaders are committed to addressing the housing crisis. 'If the plan is to move forward, then it would be our objective to put the bodies in place to do that,' Marcantonio said in a phone interview. 'There's a lot of people that want to solve this problem — I think Rhode Island could be a leader on how to solve this issue. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NOAA calls for R.I. officials to fill open seats on CRMC
Crystal Serenity, a cruise ship owned by Crystal Cruises visiting Newport, is anchored in the Anchorage D area west of Goat Island on Oct. 3, 2024. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) gives top marks to the expert staff of Rhode Island's coastal regulatory agency in a new evaluation. But federal regulators remain concerned over three open seats on the politically appointed Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), calling on Gov. Dan McKee and the legislature to fill the vacancies 'as soon as possible.' 'It is essential that a quorum is maintained and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Program conducts a regular and full schedule of Council and subcommittee meetings in order to implement Rhode Island's approved coastal management program,' NOAA's Office of Coastal Management wrote in its April 10 report. The 148-page document examined federal data collection, in-person meetings with staff and council members, and verbal and written public comments on the agency's performance spanning the five-year period from September 2019 to October 2024. Federal monitoring of the state coastal program is required as part of a 1972 federal law setting up coastal regulations and funding for state-level programs. More than one-third of CRMC's $6.2 million budget in fiscal 2025 came from federal funds, including roughly $1.7 million from NOAA. NOAA's latest evaluation concludes that the state is 'successfully implementing and enforcing' its federal coastal management program based on examination of its program administration, offshore wind projects, public access and protections against shoreline erosion. However, NOAA highlighted several weaknesses in Rhode Island's adherence to federal regulations, including the vacancies on the 10-member council. Seven spots are filled, with the newest gubernatorial appointee, Dr. Michael Reuter of Barrington, confirmed by the Rhode Island Senate last month. The three open seats risk canceled meetings and delayed decisions if the council can't get at least six of its sitting members to show up — a problem that has plagued the appointed body for years. Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee's office, said in an email Wednesday that the governor was seeking qualified candidates for the open seats. She confirmed candidates are now under consideration, but did not respond to follow-up questions such as how many contenders are being vetted. Council vacancies are one of many problems cited by critics, whose frustrations with the panel's controversial, and at times, unlawful, decisions have reached a boiling point. Coastal advocates have teamed up with Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and state lawmakers to overhaul the agency, proposing to eliminate the council and reshape the CRMC as an administrative body akin to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Several versions of this proposal have been introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly this year, but not advanced beyond committee prior to the legislature's April break. NOAA took no position on the pending state legislation but noted states have flexibility to determine the structure of their coastal management programs. Of the 29 states with federal coastal management programs, only three — Rhode Island, California and North Carolina — give significant decision-making power to an appointed panel, according to a February report from the Rhode Island Department of Administration. Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay, saw NOAA's indifference to how Rhode Island executes its coastal management program in a positive light. Save the Bay is a leading advocate for the proposed overhaul of the CRMC. 'Sometimes, opponents [of the reform bill] will point to NOAA as this sort of bogeyman,' Thorp said in an interview Wednesday. 'NOAA is basically saying, 'we don't care how you set it up. You have a menu of options available to you.'' Save the Bay ultimately wants to get rid of the council, but Thorp still wants the open seats filled in the interim. 'We need the council to be fully seated so they can function and conduct their business,' Thorp said. The CRMC issued a statement on April 10 celebrating its 'good grade' from NOAA. Jeffrey Willis, CRMC executive director, acknowledged requests for an interview but did not respond to subsequent calls and emails. The report offered high praise for the agency's 32-person staff who 'excel at defining their role as regulator and policymaker, forging strong partnerships with others who have complementary skill sets and missions.' However, the increasing scope of their work and responsibilities, from the slew of proposed offshore wind projects to disputes over public access to the shoreline and complex permitting applications, are more than the current employee roster can handle. Employees worked 60 to 80-hour weeks during reviews of proposed offshore wind projects, according to the report. 'Moving forward, a continued insufficient staffing level and strain felt by staff places the state of Rhode Island at a disadvantage in being asked to manage and analyze a significant amount of information and material required to complete additional federal consistency reviews,' the report stated. Lack of staffing has also contributed to a backlog of permitting applications, insufficient enforcement against violators such as Quidnessett Country Club, and delayed and incomplete reporting required for federal grants, the report stated. McKee has rejected calls to fund new hires for the strapped coastal agency. His proposed fiscal 2026 budget rejects the CRMC's request for money for five more employees. In lieu of more full-time workers, NOAA suggested partnerships with university law programs and use of third-party contractors. And it reiterated a requirement first made in a 2020 report to transition to an online permitting database. The original 2024 deadline has now been extended to Sept. 30, 2026. The CRMC did not respond to questions Wednesday regarding the delays in creating the online database. The evaluation comes as the Trump administration has imposed major layoffs and budget cuts at NOAA. How attempts to gut the federal regulatory agency will trickle down to Rhode Island's state coastal program remains murky, though Willis told council members during an April 8 meeting that the CRMC could lose up to 10% of its $1.7 million in NOAA funding. When incorporating additional administrative costs for the state to seek and carry out federal funding, the cuts could rise to 17%, Willis said. 'At this time of year, we usually have our federal allocation in hand,' Willis said. 'Right now, we don't know how we're going to put it in our budget and we don't know what kind of funding we're going to get. We're just in a wait-and-see period.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
